Transfer of QC treasurer questioned

Quezon City (QC) Mayor Herbert Bautista drew flak over the weekend for earlier requesting the transfer of the current City Treasurer who has been recognized by the Department of Finance (DoF) as a top-performing official.

“What [did]Mayor Herbert Bautista [mean]when he [said]our City Treasurer lacks delivery? What kind of delivery is he talking about?” a City Treasurer’s Office (CTO) insider, who requested anonymity, asked on Sunday.

The source told The Manila Times that, although being recommended to be relieved, QC’s City Treasurer Edgar Villanueva has been cited by the DoF as the second best at handling funds in the cited department’s new monitoring project.

According to a DoF-Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF) report that covers 2010-2012, QC placed second in the Local Government Unit (LGU) Fiscal Sustainability Scorecards – a regular fiscal and financial management performance assessment of LGUs.

The scorecards are available in the BLGF’s “Iskor ng ‘yong Bayan” website, http://iskor.blgf.gov.ph.

Topping the list and described as the best performing LGU was Tagaytay City which posted a score of 86.5. QC, meanwhile, has a score of 86.3 and was cited as the second-best performing LGU and the only city in Metro Manila to receive an “excellent” grade in 2012.

The DoF report also noted that QC showed consistent improvement during the three years covered by the report. In 2010, the first year of Bautista’s administration and Villanueva’s appointment as the city treasurer, the city’s score was considered “good” before improving to “very good” in 2011.

“We noted significant improvements in the local revenue collections of the city, with total local revenue posting double-digit year-on-year growths from 2011 to 2012,” the DoF said.

It added that the city’s total capital expenditure per capita improved from 2011 (P3,379) to 2012 (P4,070).

On May 6, Bautista wrote the DoF to request Villanueva’s relief “for loss of trust and confidence as Local Treasurer of Quezon City and his subsequent detail to the Bureau of Local Goverment Finance.”

The Times broke the story that a rift has been hounding the tandem of Bautista and Villanueva when the former, instead of allowing Villanueva to assess the taxes due from the city’s taxpayers, formed a task force to perform the job.